Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-06-15
CHAPTER XVIII.
AND AFTER.

In front of the door of "The Palatial" was
q round flower bed filled with weeds and
flowers mixed up together like the good and
evil in the heart OF man, and to the right
hand side of this bed stood all old wooden
chair with the back off. No sooner had John
got outside the door Of the cottage than he
became sensible that, what between one
thing and another-weariness, loss OF blood
from his wound, and intense mental emotion
If he did rot sit down somewhere pretty
quickly he should follow the example set by
Jess and faint straight away. Accordingly
he made for the old chair and perched him
self OH it with gratitude. Presently be saw
Mrs. Neville coming steaming along the path
with q bottle of brandy in her hand.
"Ah" he thought to himself, "that will
just come in handy form If don't have
glass of brandy soon I shall roll of this
Internal chair-I am sure of it"
"Where is JESSE" painted Mrs. Neville
"In there" he said; "she has recovered. 1t
would have been better for Us both if she
hadn't" he added to himself.
HWhy, bless me, Capt. Mel, how queer you
look!" said Mrs. Neville, tanning herself with
her hat" and there is such row going OH
at the camp there; the volunteers swear that
they will attack the military for deselting
them, and l don't know what all; and they
simply wouldn't believe NE when said you
were not shot. Why, never! Look! your
boot is full of blood So you were hit after
ALL"
"Might l trouble you to give lie some
brandy. Mrs. Neville?" said John, family.
She filled glass she had brought with her
half full of water from little irrigation
furrow that ran down from the main SLUT by
the road, and then topped it up with brandy.
He drank it, and felt decidedly better.
"pear mel" said Mrs Neville, "there are a
pair of you now You should just have seen
that girl 60 down when she saw the body
coming along the road! made sure that it
was you; but it wasn't They say that it
was poor Jim Smith, son Of old Smith Of
Rustenburg. I tell you what it is, Capt.
Mel, you had better be careful; if that girl
isn't in love with you, she is something very
like it. A girl does not pop over like that for
Dick, Tom or Harry. You must forgive an
old woman like me for speaking out plain, but
she is all odd girl is jess, just like ten women
rolled into one so far as her mind goes, and if
you don't take care you will get into trouble,
which will be rather awkward, as you NJ Q
going to marry her sister. jess isn't u girl to
have bit of u tlirt to pass away the time and
have done with it, can tell YOU" and she
shook her head solemnly, as though she sus-
pected him of trifling with his future sister
in laws young affections, and then, without
waiting for al answer, turned and went into
the cottage.
As for John, he only groaned What could
he do but groan2 The whole thing was self
evident, and if ever man felt ashamed of
himself that man was John Mel. lie was O
strictly honorable individual, and it cut him
to the heart to think that he had entered
OH course which was not honorable,
considering his engagement to Bessie.
When he. u few minutes before, had
told jess he loved her he had said a
disgraccful thing, however true a thing it
might be- And that was the worst Of it; it
was true; lie did love her. He felt it come
sweeping over him like wave as she stood
there looking ut him III the room, utterly
drowning and ovcrpowering his affection for
Bessie, to whom he was bound by every tie Of
honor. 1t was u lew and wonderful thing,
this passion that had arisen within him, as u
strong man armed, and driven every other
affection away into the waste places Of his
mind; and, unfortunately, it was an overmas-
tering and, as hc already guessed an endur-
ing thing. He cursed himself in his shame
and anger as he sat there recovering his equi-
librium on the broken chair and tying n
handkerchief tight round his wound. What
fool he had been! Why had he not waited
to see which of the two he really took to-!
Why had jess gone away like that and
thrown him into temptation with her pretty
sister! lie was sure now that she had cared
for him all along. Well. there it was, and a
precious bad business too! One thing he was
clear about; it should 60 no further. He was
not going to break his engagement to Bessie;
it was not to be thought of. But, all the
same, he felt sorry for himself and sorry for
jess too.
Just then. however, the bandage OH his leg
slipped, and the wound began to bleed SO fast
that he was fain to limp into the house for as-
sistunce.
jess, who had apparently quite got over
herasitation. was standing by the table talk
Ing to Mrs. Neville, who was persuading her
to swallow some of the brandy she had been
at such pains to fetch. The moment she
caught sight of Johns face, which had now
turned ghastly white and saw the red line
tricliling down his boot, she took up her hat
that was lying OH the table.
"You had letter lie down on the old bed
stead in the little room," she said; II am
going for the doctor."
Assisted by Mrs Neville, he was only too
glad to take this advice, but long before tho
doctor arrived John had followed Jess
example, and, to the intense alarm of Mrs.
Neville, who w;s vainly endcavoring to
check the flow of blood, which had now be-
come copiOus, gone Off into dead faint. On
the arrival of the doctor it appeared that the
bullet had grazcd the walls of one of the
arteries Oh tie inside of the thigh without
actually cutting them, but that they had now
given way, which rendered it necessary to
tic tile artery. This operation, with the
assistance of choroform, he proceeded to
successfully carry out OIL the spot, announc-
ing afterwalu that u great deal of blood had
already been lost.
When at last it was over, Mrs. Neville
asked about John being moved up to the
hospital, but the doctor declared that he
must stop where lie was. and that Jess must
stOraud belD to nurse him. with the assist